By Silvia Fiore
Communications Manager,GÉANT
In an increasingly interconnected world, effective communication is more critical than ever. For the global GÉANT community, which spans continents, cultures, and languages, conveying the value of its work to varied audiences is paramount. That’s where the Special Interest Group on Marketing and Communications (SIG-Marcomms) comes into play.
Why SIG-Marcomms Matters
The GÉANT community, with its dedication to supporting the global R&E environment, thrives on collaboration, mutual learning, and innovative solutions. SIG-Marcomms contributes by enhancing communication practices across its members, ensuring that vital initiatives reach stakeholders and end-users. Through this collective effort, SIG-Marcomms supports the visibility, relevance, and impact of R&E networks worldwide.
The group serves as a platform for communication and marketing professionals across GÉANT’s extensive network to exchange ideas, tools, and strategies that will help elevate each member organisation. By sharing best practices and addressing common challenges, SIG-Marcomms empowers members to make a more significant impact in their respective regions.
At its core, SIG-Marcomms aims to foster professional development and facilitate resource sharing among communications and marketing teams. The group promotes best practices that can be adapted across different regions and audiences, enhancing both the strategic value and effectiveness of communications within the R&E community. In addition to advancing strategies, SIG-Marcomms focuses on developing the skills and knowledge of its members, offering learning opportunities through workshops, webinars, and peer exchanges. These initiatives are designed to strengthen members’ messaging and outreach capabilities, enabling them to better serve their local audiences. The latest workshops include podcast development and recording, service marketing and defining persona’s, and AI tools for marcomms.
Furthermore, SIG-Marcomms drives collaborative campaigns to amplify the visibility and impact of the community’s initiatives, ensuring a cohesive voice across the community. Through this, the group not only strengthens the overall identity of R&E organisations but also fosters an environment where members are engaged and informed.
SIG-marcomms is part of the GÉANT Community Programme, a voluntary-based initiative encouraging cross-disciplinary exchanges through special interest groups, task forces and workshops on a variety of topics spanning from educational services to network and digital health data. For more information about the GCP, check https://community.geant.org/
Join Us in Strengthening the Community’s Voice
If you are a communications and marketing professional in the R&E community, you can join SIG-Marcomms and gain access to a wealth of knowledge, resources, and networks that will help elevate the visibility and impact of your work.
The group meets three times a year, in a combination of online, hybrid and physical meetings (usually held in Europe) and they are the moment when marcomms experts come together to share their latest news and tips on tools for content creation and planning or social media management to name a few, as well as to discuss hot topics and emerging trends, such as AI and the ever-evolving social media landscape. But the conversations do not end at the meetings! We have a mailing list, which counts almost 200 members from all over the world, and this is where you can ask your burning questions and build a community of like-minded professional.
Whether you are looking to expand your expertise, share your success stories, or learn from others about the latest marcomms tools and trends, SIG-Marcomms provides a collaborative space where everyone’s contributions makes a difference. To get involved and stay updated on the latest events, visit the GÉANT community page, the group’s wiki page and subscribe to the mailing list. The next meeting will be hybrid and hosted by the Irish NREN, HEAnet, in Dublin on 18-19 February, 2025.
